And so, 3 months later, another quarter comes to an end…next Thursday. Close enough.

I’m looking forward to having my HP back in my arms. This Dell has been lovely and much better to use than the old HP that just runs on batteries, but…I’ll have bloody CS4 on the other machine…and it’s bigger!

I’m going to miss my major when I graduate. It’s so much fun and I couldn’t be happier with the major I chose. I doubt I’ll look back on my life and regret choosing Sequential Art to study. It’s just way to much fun, and I’m glad I followed my childhood dream. Even if I get a craptacular career because I’m doodling comics, at least I fulfilled my dream.

And so, 3 months later, another quarter comes to an end…next Thursday. Close enough.

I’m looking forward to having my HP back in my arms. This Dell has been lovely and much better to use than the old HP that just runs on batteries, but…I’ll have bloody CS4 on the other machine…and it’s bigger!

I’m going to miss my major when I graduate. It’s so much fun and I couldn’t be happier with the major I chose. I doubt I’ll look back on my life and regret choosing Sequential Art to study. It’s just way to much fun, and I’m glad I followed my childhood dream. Even if I get a craptacular career because I’m doodling comics, at least I fulfilled my dream.

Here’s some stuff I’ve been working on for colouring:

It’s…alright, not too great but I’m still working on building my portfolio.

This was actually our first assignment in the computer colouring class, and I only dislike the first image. The other two I had fun colouring. The man in the moon wasn’t actually in the original lineart. But I love The Mighty Boosh too much to pass up that opportunity.

Okay, for our midterm, we have to colour two sequential comic pages, a pin-up and whatever we want. I chose to colour one of my most favourite comics, Kabuki. I absolutely love the painted style, it’s the kind of style I’d ideally want to create. Which I still strive for, traditionally. But I think I can pull it off well digitally. David Mack’s black and white pages are far more open to fancy colouring, which is why I chose this page:

And ran with it. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to the page after this, that’s for another update.

Today’s my birthday and I was woken up at 8 a.m. by a tree falling. Awesome! It wasn’t so bad, just because it was a short loud “CRACK” noise. And I don’t think it did too much damage to the car it fell on. It was later, at 9 a.m., when the chainsaw started, that I quite disliked Nature’s way of telling me happy birthday.

Oh well, the day is dark and dreary and the tree has been cut up and moved. I’m looking towards a pretty good birthday day now. Nice and quiet, spent with the man I love.

We’re working on our midterms right now in my computer colouring class, which means that I have about 4 pages to colour (and some to draw) before next Thursday. I’ll be pretty busy getting that stuff up and done, but I’m planning on posting some recent work this weekend.

Now, off to class to doodle and colour for 2 1/2 hours!

After going to a Rock Band party this weekend, I think J and I are determined to get it. However, while it’s a fun game and all, I don’t think you can consider screaming as loud as you can as you fumble the words singing.

My ears hurt that night. Nonetheless, the game shall be purchased, played and replayed over and over again until some other music game comes out that’s as good.

And so, as the ashes rise from the destruction of muffinmumblings.blogger.com, I cristen thee Muffin Mumblings v. 2.0!

May many good times be had here, personal blog. And may you survive and live a long life.

I recall hearing about Dark Sector a year or so ago, but didn’t pay too close attention to it. The game looked nice, and its hook (you have evil powers that take the form of a bionic glaive)seemed promising so I was intrigued when J decided it was finally time to rent it. Of course, he knows far more about the game then I do, and showed me that it was, in fact, one of the first games to be developed for next-gen consoles but when through a whole hell of a lot of retooling. So much so, that the only similarity between the original trailer from E3 2005 and the most recent one is the main character’s name (Hayden) and his suit design. Take a look:

2005

2007

To be fair, Hayden’s super suit doesn’t actually show up in the 2007 trailer, but here it is:

So, what’s the storyline and why was this game halted for so long?

Well, the story takes place in made-up Lasria (it’s Russia, we all know it’s Russia), where we find ourselves in the middle of a biochemical war. An American Agent, Hayden, is sent in to destroy the creator of this horrible infection (known as Technocyte) Mezner. Within his first encounter with the bearded super-villian, Hayden has his arm evily jabbed by Mezner’s right hand man, The Nemisis. Ouchie!

Hayden on the lefthand side, Nemesis on the righthand side

Hayden’s arm transforms into a slimy, metallic, biofantabulous…arm that holds a glaive. This glaive is, of course, Hayden’s power. He can kill enemies with it, pick up weapons, explode things, carry elemental power, open locks, grab bananas, slice watermelons, and open 3 letters at once. It really is the go-to tool for the everyday mutant!

Look at it burn! A dangerous weapon and convenient source of heat!

Anyhoo, Hayden progresses through Russia Lasria, looking to kill Mezner and halt his plans to expose the virus to the rest of the world, successfully creating a planet of pissed off zombies and mutants. Along his journey, Hayden fights through tons of fat biohazard-suited humans and creepy Silent Hill/Resident Evil style mutants and zombies.

So, why the drastic difference between 2008’s Dark Sector and 2005’s? According to the developers, the shift in focus by other gaming companies and publishers contributed to a story change, as well as adding a realism element that they hoped fans would enjoy. They wanted Hayden to be more like a superhero, and therefore more relatable. He stands out in a modern setting, whereas he might blend in, in a sci-fi setting.

To be honest, I don’t see what was wrong with sticking with the space idea. Mass Effect (takes place in space) was also released this year to quite a bit of success. I don’t really see how making Hayden a superhero is the same as making him relatable to fans. I suppose his mental conflicts do make the story a tad more believable, but he could have just the same amount of mental anguish up in space. Oh well, onto the pros and cons

Pros: This game has some fantastic settings and the graphics really do look better than their original 2005 concept. The concept art for the locations is quite stunning and accomplishes the goal of “don’t play this game in the dark.”

The glaive itself is a pretty cool idea, and I like all of the powers that centers around it.

Cons: Hoo boy, the cons. The story is somewhat confusing. I found myself asking J “what’s going on?” more than once, only to be met with “I don’t know”. The reason I didn’t play through this game myself is because I felt the controls were kind of awkward and just found myself panicking over having fun. It is a good game to watch though, and I was perfectly content doing that.

Hayden….I hate his character design. My tablet’s not working again (another story for another time), so here’s what I hate the most about him in awkward touchpad format:

It may not be obvious in that image, but he has a really tiny face positioned on a large, round head on top of a neck the same width as his ROUND HEAD! I hate his stupid tiny face. When he has the suit that doesn’t really do anything apparently but look cool and hide his stupid face, he doesn’t look too bad. But when that mask comes off…grrrr….
Also, what the hell is up with his shoulders and arms and why are they disconnected from his torso so much? I did a bit of “2-minute Photoshop plastic surgery” to show how I think he should have looked:

I just realized I didn’t give him a large enough chin, so just imagine this with a proper chin attached.

Yeah, what the hell Digital Extremes?

All character bashing aside, there’s some massive repetitive-level failure during one part of this game. You just keep walking into room after room, mindlessly killing throngs of mutants without much of an explanation.

Also, I’m not going to ruin the ending but I will say that this game does feature slimy, green gas spewing….tentacles…

Yep.

So really, overall this game is pretty…meh. It had some good concepts, great background art and creepy potential but the story just doesn’t draw you in enough to care about a mutant infection escaping the soviet union. Also, Hayden has a stupid tiny face, that’s not the head of a hero to me, not even an anti-hero. That’s the face of a glaive-wielding jerk.

It is worth a rent though, just not a buy.

PRK Experience: My Journal

Part 4- day 5

Well, I didn’t post about my day 10 follow-up because it was quite short and I was told that I was healing nicely and my combined vision was about 20/25.

Today I had my 6th follow-up visit and I’m happy to report that I’m seeing 20/20!

It was another short visit, which is good. That means my eyes are healing great. I haven’t been using the eyedrops quite as much, as my eyes don’t feel as dry and I’m able to produce tears normally.

All in all, great news. My next visit is in about 6 weeks, and I imagine it to be much of the same. From here until my 1 year visit, I don’t think I’m going to post anymore about my PRK experience unless something drastic happens. At this rate, I don’t believe it will.

So, in conclusion, I’m very happy with my Lasik surgery and my experience has been more positive than I expected. LasikPlus has been wonderful and I highly recommend them if you choose to take that big step into better vision.

My vision isn’t perfect yet, but it’s still far better that it originally was. I’m keeping in mind that the eye doesn’t fully reshape itself for several months, which is why I’m not thinking “jeez, it’s been a week…why can’t I see perfectly yet?!”. I’m reasonable and more than happy with the gift of sight I’ve so far received.

So, since I don’t start work until I feel comfortable enough to return (I’m banking on the first week in July if all goes well), what have I been doing with my little vacation?

The answer is…nothing really. Nothing aside from video games, that is.